The Second Day of The Storm
So after two days of constant snow and winds causing the entire house to shake a new Blog spot has been made. Are you not all not the lucky ones. The most exciting thing to report is that i have nearly gotten the bag of jelly beans down to just licorice... then it will be time to feast.
Found out today that the Bishop is arriving the first full week of march. Apparently he is bringing a helicopter for us to use while he is here. This will be interesting.
In order to put something of possible worth out to be read here is last weeks sermon:
Back in the fall, a few days before the first blanket of snow wrapped about the land, I went for a walk in the area behind the rectory. In the midst of the bogs and rocks, the small bushes and trees, I cam upon an animal skeleton, something a little larger than a rabbit; it was bleached white and parts where scattered about. It was hard to look at the bleached thin white bones held together by dried sinew and think that once this had been a living thing. I took a few steps away and saw the skull, white with cavernous dark holes where the eyes should be, and two little triangles on the end of the nose, where once air came in and out as the animal breathed.
What would I have done if instead of coming across one singe animal skeleton I had crested a hill and come across a valley filled with the bleached white bones of humans. This is the site Ezekiel comes across in his dream. When he sees these bones he hears the voice of God. God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones that they will come alive... Ezekiel does this he prophesies to the bones, he tells the bones what is going to happen, he tells them that they are going to come alive by the Power of God. And bone attaches to bone, muscles, lungs, other organs grow, soon before Ezekiel is not a valley of bones but a valley of bodies, standing.
The bodies before Ezekiel are not alive, however. These bodies lack breathe. We have to realize that for Ezekiel, as for Jesus and the people of his time, breath and spirit, breathing and having a soul, were the same things. In the language that Christ spoke there was a word "penuma" and Christ would have used the word "penuma" to mean breathe when he would say "i am taking a breath" and he would have used the same word "penuma" to mean soul if he would say "I am saving your soul". It is God that gives the soul, that gives breathe, and he tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the bodies that they will have breathe. Ezekiel does this and by the power of God this valley of bodies becomes a valley of human beings with souls.
This dream of Ezekiel is in part meant to show the overwhelming way God can change our lives. He can take the dried up bones of our lives and not only make them whole but bring new life into them. What if you were those bones... it is a silly thought, to imagine yourself dried up bones suddenly being told to come alive by the voice of God. Lazurus found himself in this position, however. Lazurus is dead, little better then any of the dried up bleached bones in the valley, and suddenly he hears Christ calling to him "Lazurus, Come out!"... And Lazurus does just that, instead of staying in the tomb all wrapped up in funeral linens and attempting to remain dead Lazurus gets up and stumbles his way outside finding his friends waiting to help him untie the clothes binding him.
What was a dream for Ezekiel is a reality for Christ.
Christ breathes life back into Lazurus' dead body. These are stories of reawakening, of coming to life, of great and overwhelming change. The power to change is the power to bring in the unknown. When we look at our lives there are big changes we like, getting married, having a baby.... and changes that bring us sorrow, the death of a loved one. Change brings with it a touch of fear... the groom has cold feet, the expectant mother wonders if she can truly take care of the new baby, the grieving family wonders how it can continue with such a drastic absence in their lives.
If we let it this fear of change can be overwhelming. People will never date fearful of what a committed relationship might mean... a couple will never have children fearful of how a baby would alter their lifestyle... and families sometimes do not accept the death of a loved one and fail to find ways to live and love each other.
So we can allow change into our life, change that can be happy or sad, or we can fear change and attempt to stop it. When Christ calls us like he called Lazurus, we can do like Lazurus did and stumble out of our tombs wrapped in funeral linens, or we can stay snugly wrapped in linens laying in the tomb and ignore Christ's call.
When Christ rose Lazurus from the dead he forced the world to make a decision, for three years a lot of the world had ignored Christ as he went about and ministered and taught the people. When Lazurus was raised from the dead Christ had done something that was overwhelming and people where forced to make a choice. The choice took two forms. The first group hailed Christ as the Messiah, on Palm Sunday they came out and threw their clothes in the road in front of him. They lined the streets with palms. The heard the lords cry and came wanting him to work change in their hearts. The left the tomb and walked out allowing the funeral linens to be unwrapped.
The other way of looking at the change of Christ is seen just a few days later. As a crowd gathers around the center of Jerusalem and screamed at Pontious Pilate to Crucify the bringer of change, to nail Jesus Christ up to a cross to slowly die a horrible death of suffocation. It was the group that feared change, the group that wanted to stay bundled up in funeral linens inside the tomb.
As humans we have a choice, to allow Christ and the change he brings into our lives into our hearts or to do our best to be like Christ. The changes Christ wants to bring into our lives are not always happy ones neither are they always sad ones, they are changes. We are sinful creatures that need redeeming. This is a long process that is not easy. To begin the process we have to come out of the tomb like Lazurus did and let the funeral cloths be unbound. WE have to allow the dry bones of our lives to be prophesized to and be brought to life, and then to allow the breath of god to come in us. We have to wake up each morning and say "Today I wish Gods will to be done, I wish Christ to come into my heart and cause the change that will lead me to God".
No matter how many sundays you have come to church. No matter how well you have the prayer book memorized... If you think for a moment you have it all figured out, that you are all in the right with God, that you do not need to be changed, that you do not need to answer Christ call to come out of where you are... then not only are you stupidly sitting in a dark tomb wrapped in funeral cloths, you are also taking a hammer in your hands and nailing Christ to the cross.
Found out today that the Bishop is arriving the first full week of march. Apparently he is bringing a helicopter for us to use while he is here. This will be interesting.
In order to put something of possible worth out to be read here is last weeks sermon:
Back in the fall, a few days before the first blanket of snow wrapped about the land, I went for a walk in the area behind the rectory. In the midst of the bogs and rocks, the small bushes and trees, I cam upon an animal skeleton, something a little larger than a rabbit; it was bleached white and parts where scattered about. It was hard to look at the bleached thin white bones held together by dried sinew and think that once this had been a living thing. I took a few steps away and saw the skull, white with cavernous dark holes where the eyes should be, and two little triangles on the end of the nose, where once air came in and out as the animal breathed.
What would I have done if instead of coming across one singe animal skeleton I had crested a hill and come across a valley filled with the bleached white bones of humans. This is the site Ezekiel comes across in his dream. When he sees these bones he hears the voice of God. God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones that they will come alive... Ezekiel does this he prophesies to the bones, he tells the bones what is going to happen, he tells them that they are going to come alive by the Power of God. And bone attaches to bone, muscles, lungs, other organs grow, soon before Ezekiel is not a valley of bones but a valley of bodies, standing.
The bodies before Ezekiel are not alive, however. These bodies lack breathe. We have to realize that for Ezekiel, as for Jesus and the people of his time, breath and spirit, breathing and having a soul, were the same things. In the language that Christ spoke there was a word "penuma" and Christ would have used the word "penuma" to mean breathe when he would say "i am taking a breath" and he would have used the same word "penuma" to mean soul if he would say "I am saving your soul". It is God that gives the soul, that gives breathe, and he tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the bodies that they will have breathe. Ezekiel does this and by the power of God this valley of bodies becomes a valley of human beings with souls.
This dream of Ezekiel is in part meant to show the overwhelming way God can change our lives. He can take the dried up bones of our lives and not only make them whole but bring new life into them. What if you were those bones... it is a silly thought, to imagine yourself dried up bones suddenly being told to come alive by the voice of God. Lazurus found himself in this position, however. Lazurus is dead, little better then any of the dried up bleached bones in the valley, and suddenly he hears Christ calling to him "Lazurus, Come out!"... And Lazurus does just that, instead of staying in the tomb all wrapped up in funeral linens and attempting to remain dead Lazurus gets up and stumbles his way outside finding his friends waiting to help him untie the clothes binding him.
What was a dream for Ezekiel is a reality for Christ.
Christ breathes life back into Lazurus' dead body. These are stories of reawakening, of coming to life, of great and overwhelming change. The power to change is the power to bring in the unknown. When we look at our lives there are big changes we like, getting married, having a baby.... and changes that bring us sorrow, the death of a loved one. Change brings with it a touch of fear... the groom has cold feet, the expectant mother wonders if she can truly take care of the new baby, the grieving family wonders how it can continue with such a drastic absence in their lives.
If we let it this fear of change can be overwhelming. People will never date fearful of what a committed relationship might mean... a couple will never have children fearful of how a baby would alter their lifestyle... and families sometimes do not accept the death of a loved one and fail to find ways to live and love each other.
So we can allow change into our life, change that can be happy or sad, or we can fear change and attempt to stop it. When Christ calls us like he called Lazurus, we can do like Lazurus did and stumble out of our tombs wrapped in funeral linens, or we can stay snugly wrapped in linens laying in the tomb and ignore Christ's call.
When Christ rose Lazurus from the dead he forced the world to make a decision, for three years a lot of the world had ignored Christ as he went about and ministered and taught the people. When Lazurus was raised from the dead Christ had done something that was overwhelming and people where forced to make a choice. The choice took two forms. The first group hailed Christ as the Messiah, on Palm Sunday they came out and threw their clothes in the road in front of him. They lined the streets with palms. The heard the lords cry and came wanting him to work change in their hearts. The left the tomb and walked out allowing the funeral linens to be unwrapped.
The other way of looking at the change of Christ is seen just a few days later. As a crowd gathers around the center of Jerusalem and screamed at Pontious Pilate to Crucify the bringer of change, to nail Jesus Christ up to a cross to slowly die a horrible death of suffocation. It was the group that feared change, the group that wanted to stay bundled up in funeral linens inside the tomb.
As humans we have a choice, to allow Christ and the change he brings into our lives into our hearts or to do our best to be like Christ. The changes Christ wants to bring into our lives are not always happy ones neither are they always sad ones, they are changes. We are sinful creatures that need redeeming. This is a long process that is not easy. To begin the process we have to come out of the tomb like Lazurus did and let the funeral cloths be unbound. WE have to allow the dry bones of our lives to be prophesized to and be brought to life, and then to allow the breath of god to come in us. We have to wake up each morning and say "Today I wish Gods will to be done, I wish Christ to come into my heart and cause the change that will lead me to God".
No matter how many sundays you have come to church. No matter how well you have the prayer book memorized... If you think for a moment you have it all figured out, that you are all in the right with God, that you do not need to be changed, that you do not need to answer Christ call to come out of where you are... then not only are you stupidly sitting in a dark tomb wrapped in funeral cloths, you are also taking a hammer in your hands and nailing Christ to the cross.
posted by koraps at 10:05 PM
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